Just Like Waking Up
by AmazingGraceless
Summary: Delphi realizes through her friendship with Albus that she's gone too far, and through Time-Turner shenanigans decides to get a second chance.


**AN: This is for Quidditch. Prompt: a second chance on a rainy day. 980 words. Spoilers for _Cursed Child_ and _Fantastic Beasts._**

* * *

Delphi looked from Scorpius to Albus.

"Voldemort ruled, he was alive?" she asked, unable to hide her reverence, her wonder.

"It was horrible," Scorpius said. "We can't let it happen, not even for Cedric."

 _Not when we're so close!_

"I see," she said, measuring her words carefully, like Euphemia would one of her recipes. "I understand- no, I'll do you one better- Cedric would've understood."

"You think so?" Albus asked.

"I know so," she said. "We'll have to destroy the Time-Turner, then. We'll do it together, and then we'll tell Amos."

"Okay," Albus said. He handed her the Time-Turner. He glanced at the witch's back, exposed by her feathery shawl. "What's that?"

"What?" Delphi was startled. "An augury. A big black bird. You'll meet them in Care of Magical Creatures." She turned the golden object over and over in her hands. "Wizards used to believe they cried when someone was about to die. They really cry when it's about to rain. My guardian kept one in a cage."

"Your guardian?" Scorpius asked.

"Euphemia Rowle," Delphi said, lost in memories of Rowle Castle. "Didn't like me much. Only took me in for the gold."

 _You were unwanted, even then. Even right after you were born. Why do you think that the great Dark Lord would want you?_

She shook her head ever so slightly, to try and rid herself of these doubts. Euphemism and Thorfinn didn't want her- even her own damn mother didn't want her. But the Dark Lord must have, or she would never have been born.

"She always said I'd come to a sticky end," Delphi murmured. _Is this it?_ "That's why the bird always cried when I was around."

"The Rowles were pretty serious Death Eaters," Scorpius said, his dark gray eyes suspicious and intent on Delphi's face. She wondered if he knew. He would, soon enough. They both had the face of the Black sisters.

"You were never ill, were you?" Scorpius realized. "I don't believe you are who you say you are! Give me back the Time-Turner!"

He lunged for it, and Delphi attempted to yank it out of his reach, but the two cousins fell to the ground, grappling for the Time-Turner. Then, by some twist of fate, it slid of out Delphi and Scorpius's hands, and spun from the forces of physics. Delphi and Scorpius gave each other one look before diving for it again, and Albus joining the fray.

All three of them grabbed onto the chain right before they traveled back in time.

* * *

Two wizards and a witch, all dressed exceedingly strangely, appeared in the ruined subway in New York.

Delphi Riddle, the witch, got to her feet and looked around for the Time-Turner. Scorpius rose next, looking around desperately for it. Slowly, Albus rose to his own feet, the golden hourglass clasped in his hands.

Delphi turned around, and reached for it, as did Scorpius. Albus leapt back.

"No!" He shouted. "No more! What's going on? Delphi?"

"Albus," Delphi said, almost on instinct. Her eyes searched his face. The boy had an infatuation for her. Guilt tugged at her heartstrings. Albus cared, somehow, for her. Scorpius was always suspicious, maybe even jealous. But Albus cared, something no one else had done.

 _Get a grip._

She straightened and stiffened into a figure more like her infamous parents. "I need that Time-Turner. I need it to get my father back."

"Your father?" Albus was confused.

"It was you!" Scorpius realized. "You're Voldemort's child! You're the reason everyone hates me! You're the reason Father hid me and Mum away in the Manor! It's all your fault!"

Despite Delphi knowing that Scorpius held no love for her, it was still a punch in the gut. Her heart rose in her throat. He spoke the truth: her existence was a curse.

She was a cursed child.

Bringing Voldemort back wouldn't change anything.

She looked around. The ruined subway. . . It looked like a photograph in one of Euphemia's old newspapers in the castle's library.

She ran up the stairway, and saw it was raining outside, and heavily. Across, she could see four figures out of a textbook in another subway staircase. Two witches, a wizard, and a muggle. The witches and wizard were crying as the muggle stepped into the rain.

Delphi heard footsteps and turned around to see Albus and Scorpius coming to follow her. Albus stopped, eyes intent on her- but Scorpius looked past her.

"It's Newt Scamander and Queenie Kowalski and Jacob Kowalski and Tina Scamander," Scorpius said, sounding like the enthusiastic geek he once was. Maybe he could be again.

"The rain, it will make you forget," Albus said. Delphi could see it in those green eyes he'd inherited from his father. He understood. He understood her on some level.

She turned to it. So many years had gone by, in attempt to carry out this plan. It would all be for nothing, she realized that now.

But could she ever move on?

 _You'll always be an orphan. You'll never find what you're looking for._

She looked back out to the rain. She could forget that terrible day, that terrible and great day that she visited Rodolphus in Azkaban- and he told her that he was not her father.

She was a daughter of a man who did terrible but great things.

She no longer had a father.

"You only have one more minute," Albus said.

Scorpius's eyes widened. "You don't have to-"

"I do," Delphi said. "I cannot. . . I cannot move on, if I can't forget. I failed. I manipulated Amos, and I lied, and I would've killed. I can't move on from that. I can't be forgiven for that. This is a chance to start over. It'll be like waking up, they say."

She then stepped outside and let the rain wash over her.


End file.
